Etrian Odyssey Nexus
by Roxas Shade
Summary: A tale of adventurers, determined to conquer Yggdrasil...the story of sorrow, confusion, danger, hope, and a thirst for adventure at its core. These unknown explorers will change this world, whether in darkness, light, or somewhere in between. (RS)
1. Chapter 1

**Etrian Odyssey Nexus**

Tales of Guild Lunamyre

_This is a story of adventurers, those who seek the truth. And the ones that do not falter, even when all seems against them._

_For those who do not wish to see what the Nexus of this is, continue to read at your own risk….The story of Lunamyre begins now!_

_**Part the First: **__**Gathering**_

…..

_upon a ship bound westward..._

A girl walks onto the open deck. She has dull pink hair, clad in heavy metal armor with spikes scattered about, a blue skirt like article of clothing coming out from where the armor stops halfway to her knees. There's a large shield on her back, a simple metal spear underneath it. She looks towards her destination-a massive floating city, backed by an even larger tree.

"So that's Maginia, huh? Well it _is_ pretty big, and the Yggdrasil tree in the background looks stunning! Hehe, looks perfect for some nice date spots…" She chuckles.

She pulls out a small notebook from her bag at her waist, scribbling down notes. "Now I just need to find a nice guild….shouldn't be too hard, seeing as I'm a Protector- Pops did say Protectors are highly prized…hehe."

_Meanwhile, elsewhere on the ship…._

A young man wearing only some light red hakama bottoms and a thick black and gold armguard on his left arm sits in a _seiza_ position in his room, eyes closed. A sheathed katana rests on his right, and a single scented candle lights the room.

"…right." He opens his eyes and sits up, stretching, yawning. "Despite what Master said about that position helping me focus, I always end up getting drowsy, sitting like that. Ah well." He picks up his katana, placing it on his waist, and steps outside, unaffected by the chill air, and looks towards the floating city. "This'll be quite the adventure…"

….

An older man in leather clothes, a pair of goggles around his neck, and several thicker pieces of armor scattered over him, a young girl with honey hair in an oversized lab coat, bags bursting with vials and paper, and a woman with white plaited hair, clad in orange and red pleated cloth and bits of metal, sit at a medium sized round wooden table. In each of their hands are a set of 5 cards.

The rust haired man, who has a bow next to him, looks over at the girl and smirks lightly. "you gonna go, lassie?"

The girl glares at him, then back at her cards, "shut up old man! I'm thinking, okay?!" she huffs as the man holds a hand over his heart and

makes a mock expression of pain.

"old man? I'm barely 40!"

The woman chuckles and taps her spear. "you are mildly teasing her a bit much. Perhaps my spear can shut you up like she wants?"

The man pales. "now now, no need for violence. All of us are friends here, trying to explore that giant tree!"

The white-haired lady laughs. "That is to be true...ah, I still have trouble with speaking this language properly, my apologies."

The young girl giggles. "Hehe, its fine, its actually kind of funny to hear."

The white haired lady pouts. "Now that is not too nice."

The Rust haired man simply chuckles good naturedly, watching the exchange.

…_._

_Moving away, towards a ship going south, towards Maginia, the Floating _

_city._

Two girls stand at the front of the ship, a twinkle in their eyes. One is wearing thick blue clothing with fur lining, her blonde hair spilling out of her matching blue cap, with a face of a frost fairy clip attached. At her waist is a three barreled gun, and her pockets are full of ammo. She turns to the other girl. "How long until you think We'll arrive? Ooh, I wonder if we can find some guild members quickly!"

The other girl chuckles. Her soft blue eyes look at her companion. Clad in a pointy auburn red hat, wearing a matching red robe with armored shoulders and her wavy honey blonde hair spilling out of her own hair, she looks like what one would expect a witch to look like. In her left hand is a sword-staff a little taller than her. "Patience, my gunner friend. Let's get there first. Shouldn't be another 30 minutes.

The gun using girl huffs and plops her head on her hand, propped on the railing. Cheeks puffed, she grumbles, "But we've been on this ship for a month! My aim will get sloppy."

The witch-like girl smiles and shakes her head. "Pigs will fly before you stop worrying about your gun, I swear."

"Hey!"

…_a third ship sails towards the Floating city, coming from the south._

A girl in a blue dress with an apron attached to it chases after a fluffy black sheep, a small basket of vegetables at her hip. "oooh, get back here Dolly! I told you to stop running off!"

She bumps into someone. "ouch! O-oh, I'm sorry Milady! You see I was just um-" She's stopped by the girl she ran into raising a gauntleted hand. Clad in metal armor, purple hair in ringlets, with a rapier at her hip, and radiant blue eyes, she looks like a princess. The farmer girl shivers in fear, but blinks when the royal lady simply helps her up, then hands her the sheep with a smile.

"No need to apologize. Despite my looks, I'm no lady. Well, not for now…" Her tone sours a bit and she looks away with a small glare.

"U-um, ma'am, if your needing of a bite um...here!" The younger girl offers an apple, which the royal lady takes and pets the other girls head with a smile, causing the farmer to look up with a small giggle.

Watching the two is a woman in primarily black clothing, pouches at her waist, and a vibrant red-orange scarf. She also has a white kitsune mask on the left side of her face, strangely enough. "Guess not all royals are bad people…"

…

"…"

A woman clad in red lacquered armor, a red headband over her blonde hair, and two sheathed blades at her hips, leans on the railing, an old leather notebook in her hands. Her eyes scan the deck and huff, seeing only newbies and prideful types. "Seems I might have to go it alone for a little while, if all adventurers are like this…"

She glances as someone new comes on deck…and blinks.

The girl is rather short. Wearing a purple coat, and a purple beret on her straight pale purple hair, black leggings on her legs, she doesn't seem all that outstanding…were it not for the multicolored wings on her back, allowing her to float a good 2 feet off the ground. On her left hand is a device that has a blue gem on its center, and her other hand is gloved. There's a strange blue device that's softly glowing on her right shoulder.

She floats up, onto the roof, and sits down, the wings deactivating and collapsing into a small backpack on her back. "So that's Maginia…I wonder what will happen there."

…_a fourth ship coming from the west is sparsely populated. Nonetheless…_

A young lady covered completely in bulky black armor, her reddish eyes staring out at sea with her gray-silver hair billowing behind her, stands at the prow, a massive blade with a motor at the grip on her back, nearly as tall as her. She's soon joined by a ridiculously thin girl holding a staff that ends in a ring, half of said ring made of magic. She's wearing a dark grey dress with vibrant turquoise linings- the same color of her hair, which covers most of her face, allowing one bright gold eye to be seen. The thin girl speaks, "Thinking about what to do when we get there?"

"….I don't know. I just…after all that running we're finally free its…uplifting."

The thin girl smiles and leans on the armored girl, smiling and closes her eyes. The armored girl smiles down at her and hugs her close, gently.

….

"…aaaaaaAAAAAAHHHH-OW!"

A large, muscled man, wearing armored pants and not much else, besides spiked bandages on his fists, lands in a clearing with a large crash. He sits up, rubbing pale blonde haired head. "Last time I use one of those space time rips-OOF!"

A girl lands on his muscled chest and bounces off it, landing in the grass next to him. She's wearing a primarily purple corset dress, her purple hair with blue streaks a mess. Sitting up, she places her hand on the scythe next to her. The blade is light purple, the part connecting the shaft and blade gold on color, the sound of gears coming from it. "ahowowow….you okay big guy?"

He grunts, "Next time don't land on me missy. Now," He stands up, helping her up, "got any idea where we are?"

She shrugs, "Nope~. Oh, but I saw a big city as I was falling! Let's head that way!" She grins and walks in the direction she saw the city.

He shakes his head and follows, grumbling, "One day your lust for exploring is gonna kill us, girl."

…._that night…_

A cloaked figure watches the guard change shifts, the two at the entrance leaving to go change. Seeing the chance they have been waiting for, they rush into the city before the new shift arrives. "Let me hope this is my lucky break…after I got that stupid lens, my life has been turned upside down….hopefully no one will try to burn me here….I just need to wait and hope."

_In the depths of a ruined area, something wakes up._

There's a whirring noise, then a metallic voice sounds. "2000 years since then…well then. That's new. Kah, I'm alone then."

The voice comes from a metal clad figure…on closer inspection it looks like a robot. Bronze plating is everywhere, and instead of a face, the voice comes from 4 arranged orange metal petal like things. Attached to its back is a small rectangular shield and a bronze blade of sorts, akin to a longsword. "Well! No need to think about the past, its time to finally put all those books on leading to work! Now let's see, was it this command that let me use the blade or….AAAH WRONG COMMAAANNDDDDD!" The robot accidentally uses fire magic on its feet and flies off to who knows where…

…_Next morning…_

A girl stands in an old mansion. She's wearing white and gold tinged armor, a red breastplate, and puffy shorts that stop at her legs, which are covered in black leggings and armor near her legs. Pulling back her pale blonde almost white hair over her light blue cape, she opens her dull blue-green eyes and looks over at a table. On top of it is blue colored blade with a gold hilt, and a V shaped red shield.

She picks up the blade and looks at it reverently. Picking up the shield, she inserts the blade into it, places it on her hip, and looks at a painting of an older man on the wall. "I'll be going now, Father. Hopefully when I return, it will be with my very own guild. Wish me luck.

She smiles at the painting and walks out, into the sunlight.

**XXXXXX**

**Hiya!**

**Roxas Shade here. Yes, its another new story, and hoo boy, this one is gonna take a while.**

**It's a fanfic of Etrian Odyssey Nexus, the last one. Essentially, I'm just putting my head canon to paper…er…word doc.**

**Not too much to say (yet), but I'll at least give you the classes in order of appearance. I'll explain the looks, aka portraits, for when the characters reveal their names.**

**Classes in order of appearance: **Protector, Ronin, Survivalist, Medic, Highlander, Gunner, War Magus, Farmer, Sovereign, Ninja, Shogun, Zodiac, Imperial, Arcanist,Pugilist, Harbinger, Nightseeker, Landsknecht, Hero.

**That's all for now!**

**This is Roxas Shade, signing off!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Mueller looked up as he heard the guild hall's massive wooden door open. "new recruits? Hmm…" He saw a familiar young girl wearing Hero garb, and called to her. "Mira, over here."

The young Hero smiled and walked over. "Nice to see you again Mueller. How is the Princess doing?"

Mueller shook his head. "Running most everything by herself, leaving me to run the Guild hall. Why have you come here today, Miss? Usually the cousin of royalty- now, don't give me that look, it may be distant cousins, but you are still related-would not come to the guild hall."

Mira smiled wryly. "I figured it was time to follow in my father's footsteps and create my own guild. Here, I have the forms." She took out 2 papers, one detailing her guild, such as its name, location and general plan. The other paper was an official form to register herself.

Mueller smiled gruffly and took the papers. "It's all in order…Lunamyre hmm? I wont question the name, but perhaps you should get a few more members before making it official. Now is the best time, the Princess just finished her speech to all the new adventurers who came here."

Mira nodded, smiling. "Of course. I'll just take a few forms…I shall return shortly, Mueller."

"No rush, Miss."

…

Mira glanced around. The plaza was full of people geared for the labyrinth…and she was shivering slightly out of fear from the crowd. "_Why does my fear of people have to act up now?!"_

The young Hero started panicking, holding her head as little tears started coming out of her head, eyes spiraling.

She was jolted out of her panic attack by a smack on the back. "Hey, you doing okay there? You were ah…having what I think was a panic attack? I dunno, the atmosphere does weird things to people's bodies…"

Mira looked up and saw a girl wearing heavy dull gold armor, a shield and spear on her back, smiling at her. "you okay there girly?"

Mira blinked once, then shyly smiled. "Um, yes, I'm fine now, Thank you."

The armored girl chuckled. "Mind me asking but, those are guild registration forms in your hand, right? Mind if I join? Names Holly. I'm a Protector."

"I, um…why me? Surely a Protector could join anyone easily."

Holly shrugged. "Eh, bunch of people already tried to scout me, but the lot of them were cocky fools that only wanted a meat shield, or just a shield. Not someone I'd want to join. You look like you need some help…or am I wrong?"

Mira shook her head rapidly. "No, no, the help is much appreciated, Miss Holly. Here." She replied, handing the pink haired shield bearer a form.

Holly laughed and started filling it out. "no need for miss, I'm no royalty. And i'm probably not much older than you um…er…"

"My name is Mira. Mira Lunel."

Mira was treated to Holly pulling out a notebook and pencil from seemingly nowhere, scribbling something down and mumbling to herself. Tilting her head questioningly, she voiced, "What…are you writing down?"

Putting away the notebook, Holly grinned at Mira and simply tapped her head. "Something for later. Now, we should probably find more members, right?"

Mira blinked, then gasped, "Oh, right! I need more members for the guild!"

With a chuckling Holly in tow, Mira looked around the plaza for more members. She spotted 2 young woman, a blonde-haired Gunner and auburn-haired War Magus chatting with each other, and walked over, catching a snippet of their conversation.

"…Honestly Rose, you know we cannot just go running into the labyrinth by ourselves, no matter how confident you are."

The Gunner, Rose, huffed, "But Alliiccceeee…we spent so much time getting here! Don't you want to start your novel already?"

The War Magus sighed and closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead as if nursing a headache, her hat pushed up from the action. "Rose ...I cannot write my novel if I am dead."

Rose grumbled and pulled out her gun, fiddling with the barrel, and noticed Mira walking up slowly, "Hm? You need something?"

Mira opened her mouth, but blanked. Her hands start twitching and she stammered. "U-um, Well, you see I h-happened to O-overhear you and wondered, um…."

Holly, seeing her friend's plight, patted her head and spoke for her. "The stuttering mess is Mira, and she was wondering if you wanted to join her guild." Mira mouthed a silent thank you as Holly grinned at the two.

Rose looked at Alice and grinned cheekily. "You were saying?"

Alice whacked the back of Rose's head with her sword staff, causing the gunslinger to yelp and rub her head, pouting. Looking at the shield bearers, Alice nodded. "Ignoring my friend, yes, we are. My name is Alice, and I am a War Magus. This is Rose, a Gunner. Both of us hail from High Lagaard to the north."

Mira looked at them both with shining eyes. "Really? What's it like there?" She smiled sweetly, an innocent expression of curiosity on her face that made Alice chuckle. "It's quite cold, but very pretty. Both of us came here since the Labyrinth there has been picked clean. And as for the offer, we would be glad to take it. That's acceptable, right Rose?" She looked to her partner.

Rose shrugged and put away her gun. "Sure! It'll be fun! Ah, but maybe we should get one more person at least. Guild halls always recommend at least 5 people in a guild, and if you can, some backup members."

Mira nodded, "Alright. Let's find some more members!"

**OoOoOo**

The young Medic looked around, her eyes wide with excitement.

"This place is huge! I'm sure we can find some more people to help us clear the Labyrinth!" she hopped around, a smile on her face.

The rustette next to her shook his head at his younger friend's antics, "Anna, calm down. You look like your on a sugar rush."

The Highlander woman accompanying the two sighed as Anna started yelling at Roxas, the Survivalist replying with snark and playful jabs. "Eh, those two are so loud…" She looked back at the map of Maginia given by the town guards, and started walking away, muttering 'idiots' in her native language.

Roxas blinked once and noticed her moving away, and sighed, grabbing Anna by the collar of her coat, causing Anna to flail and spout insults, to the reply of "yeah, yeah, quiet kiddo".

The three adventurers, Alicia in the lead, moved through the packed streets, spotting multiple food vendors, and several times were approached by guilds asking if they wanted to join. All were turned down after a few moments however, as many guilds already had 5 members, and the rest were full of people obviously just looking for someone to lord over. Eventually, they arrived at their destination- The Lady of the Lake Inn. "I told you I was able to lead us, old man", Alicia smirked triumphantly, causing the receiver to roll his eyes. "Yes, but you turned down every guild request. At this rate, we'll have to go as a group of 3, which I know won't turn out well" His eyes darkened as he spoke the last words.

The young Medic squirmed out of Roxas's grasp, smiling a little. "Come on old man, I'm sure someone here can take a Highlander, Medic and Survivalist!"

"Pardon me, but do you have room for one more?" the deep voice caused the 3 to turn in surprise, presented with a man with black hair, red hakama bottoms, a katana at his waist, and a lacquered arm guard. He smiled good naturedly. "My name is Kotaro, a Ronin. The three of you seemed in need of an ally, and I'm in need of some allies as well. Can't very well conquer a Labyrinth alone."

The Survivalist narrowed his eyes, scanning the man for any sign of distrust. "Hope you don't mind me being suspicious."

The Ronin chuckled. "The fact that you are proves your smarter than you seem at first glance." He rested his hand on the hilt of his blade. "Would a demonstration help?"

Roxas looked at the thinly garbed individual a second longer, before shrugging, closing his eyes. "I'll see if you know how to use that blade against the monsters, thanks."

The two men nodded and shook hands, Alicia smiling as she observed this. "My my, it seems the elder one's boasts about being a leader were not merely hot airs." Roxas reacted with mock shock at this, stumbling back, causing the others to chuckle.

"You wound me again, Alicia!" He straightened, and then turning to Kotaro, "your blade is a welcome help. Granted, we still need one more member, but I believe we'll be fine for a little bit. Now, mayhaps we should find lodging in this establishment we've been standing in front of?"

Anna hopped once, raising her hand, "I'm all for that!"

**OoOoOo**

A fist covered in bandages slammed into the helm of a drunk guard, blasting him across the room of the pub. "Hands off missy!" Ryder, a Pugilist with a muscle-centric build, a massive scar across his bare chest, straightened and glared at the one he had punched.

Moving back in time a bit, we see the Pugilist and his charge, a young Harbinger by the name of Luna, sitting at a corner of a small, but well lit pub, both holding mugs- Ryder's close to twice the size of his charges. "Luna, why'd ya want to go to the pub? People are gonna question…" He stopped as Luna puffed her cheeks.

"Ryder, just because I appear as a lady, does not mean I am. You should know that most of all- even if originally my father made you my bodyguard, it doesn't matter now that I've been disowned…and we are no longer in Iorys anymore ...we jumped through the space-time rip…" She looked down, sniffling a little.

Ryder sighed and patted her head. "It's not like we had a choice. Your father looked ready to kill you after you took the scythe."

Luna mumbled, "mm ...suppose your right. Thank you, Ryder."

The bodyguard grinned a little. "Course, missy."

"Heeeyy….whatr you doin here? you…*hic* dont look like you hav passports…." an obviously drunk guard stumbled up, a lecherous grin on his face. "Im gonna have ta take yo in for q-quetioning...he reached for Luna, grin widening as his eyes rolled down to he- **WHAM!**

Returning to the present, Ryder grumbled and grabbed Luna, placing her under his arm and rushing out of the pub, "That's not gonna score us any favors; best get out of here before he calls for his friends…"

The burly brawler ran through the alleys, night falling, Luna quiet, understanding of the current situation.

After around 20 minutes, Ryder stopped, panting, and set Luna down. "Sorry missy…"

Luna shook her head, "No, you did the right thing, protecting me, Ryder. Not that anyone will care…"

Both of the otherworlders stiffened as a ringing noise sounded out, followed by a slightly metallic voice ringing out, "ow! Deep Elder's gem, that stung..." a gleaming metal figure slowly steps into the light, limping a little.

Ryder tenses, seeing what is for all intents and purposes, a robot moving towards them. "Hey, robot...if your some kind of mechanism made by the city to capture us, you won't take us easily."

The robot looks up, and the top left orange plate on its "face" tilts upwards, as if pantomiming an eyebrow raising. "Eh? ...got no idea what your talking about, muscle man. Granted, I'm a robot in an era that's a long time after I was made...honestly it's a miracle that I'm still functioning…" the odd robot rambles on, forgetting about his audience of two, the 4 orange square plates on its face occasionally moving around.

Luna blinks a few times, speaking to Ryder, "Ryder, I'm not going crazy, right? There's a weird robot talking like a human in front of us, right?"

Ryder flicker her head, causing her to yelp

"What was that for, Ryder?! Luna cried, rubbed her flicked forehead.

"Showing ya that you aren't going crazy. There really is a talkin robot in front of us" He walks over and grabs the robot by its head, glaring at it, " One that needs to shut up before all of us are found and thrown in jail, us for attacking a drunk, perverted guard, the robot for possible theft or illegal smuggling of...whatever the hell your made of."

The faceplates on the robot clanked together into a solid square for a moment, then the top two plates rose in understanding. "Ah, I see. So, you need help escaping because of a corrupt guard? If I could be set down, I know of a way out of this place."

Ryder looked at the robot suspiciously for a moment, then set him down, crossing his arms. "You'd better not be lying, robot."

The mechanical rambler spun its top two plates as its rolling its eyes, "why would I lie? And my name is Smithy, not 'robot'." Smithy turned and started running off, surprisingly fast despite his looks. "This way. The back allies are a maze- one I have fully catalogued in my memory banks."

Both of the otherworlders, after a moment of surprise that the robot had a name, ran off after the strange yet helpful robot.

As they disappeared into the night, Luna slightly wondered, "_Whatever happens now, I'm going to trust Smithy...he's our only hope at this point."_

**XXXXXX**

**Cheers. Despite everything, I'm able to keep up with the punishing pace I've set for myself. **

**As it might have become apparent for some of the smarter readers, the 19 characters I've set up for this story will not all be together as a single Guild.**

**At first, I wanted to gradually introduce each character over the course of a few labyrinths, but about halfway through the next chapter's creation, I realized that would leave some of them to fade into obscurity. So I rewrote about half of this chapter and scrapped the old chapter 3 to make a better idea: I'm going to have the characters in 3 groups of 5 or 6 - which allows me to flesh out each of them better and give a bit more focus, also from a gameplay standpoint works as parties are only 5 characters, and it's ridiculously hard to level more than about 7 to 8, as I've found out the hard way. Granted, this leaves 2 of the characters not being in any of those groups (brownie points if you can guess who before its fully laid out in story), but when the personalities of those 2 characters are taken into account, it fits their idea.**

**Also, in the debut chapter I said I would explain all the characters once names were given. I wrote that over a month ago, and now I'm going to give a small biography for each of them based off their general first appearance in this and the next 2 or 3 chapters. I will be starting this come chapter 3.**

**Now in case the nature of Smithy is brought into question, I can tell you with certainty that his look is not my own work, but rather one of the Yggdroid class portraits from Etrian Odyssey 3 - a class that is **_**horrid**_**, but I love the look of. I will be explaining him more come his bio.**

**Final Note: If any character catches your attention and I actually get viewers before I finish the story (and considering how big Nexus is, is possible) I will be glad to answer any questions, and even take any tweaks readers would like as long as it fits their personality. So no making Mira, who has social anxiety, suddenly act like a psycho. **

**As always, **_**constructive **_**criticism and feedback is appreciated.**

**This is Roxas Shade, signing off!**


End file.
